Now is a time to listen more deeply. Sound artist Izabela Dłużyk, blind since birth, launched a crowdfunding campaign to “dream despite blindness” back in 2016 to travel to Peruvian rainforest. We can sonically travel with her in a full-length album of field recordings, The Amazon — Where the Moon Wept.
Nature is not monochromatic sonically any more than it is visually. To know an ecosystem is to hear it, in all of the minutia of life and activity. The scale of the sounds may change, but true silence is often an indication of a collapsed natural world.
Izabela, for her part, says that blindness from birth has made her unusually sensitive to listening. That shines in the work she’s done in the Amazon, with unfold in exquisite detail. There’s a narrative, spelled out in the track titles. This is a rare album of field recordings that you could easily listen to end to end just as you would your favorite LP, with depth and space that make even stereo headphones seem like immersive surround. (I even found I tilted my head to avoid a sweetly buzzing bug that wasn’t there. Then something jumped in the water.)
The masterwork comes to us on long-time favorite label LOM from Bratislava:
From the description:
“The Amazon — Where the Moon Wept” is Izabela Dłużyk’s third release on LOM, following her local soundscape explorations of “Soundscapes of Spring” and “Soundscapes of Summer.” This time, we’re taken to the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, specifically the Tambopata National Reserve. The album invites you to dive into the rich sonic landscape of the rainforest, capturing the sounds of countless species of insects, birds, frogs, monkeys, and the Tambopata River. Split into two parts — “Encounters at Daylight” and “Whispers from the Dark” — these recordings offer an intimate glimpse into the daily rhythms of jungle life. Tracks are carefully described with timestamps of specific species or events in an attached booklet.
Izabela’s expedition to the Peruvian rainforest was made possible thanks to the generous support of her 2016 crowdfunding campaign. LOM played a key role in this effort, raising awareness and additional funds through a special series of field-recording t-shirts designed by Martina Pauková.
credits
released September 9, 2024Recorded by Izabela Dłużyk
Photos by Izabela Dłużyk
Released by LOM as LOMF12 in 2024
license
It seems we need a Soundscapes of Fall now, but I’ll leave you to go explore that yourself. Here’s Izabela talking about the project from 2016 when she began the crowd-funding – and it’s great to see that arc come to the result in 2024.
And the thank-you video:
It’s not just the far-off Amazon that deserves attention. Closer to home, Izabela has also ventured out into the last primeval forest in Europe, as reported by BBC.
On top of a growing ecological catastrophe, forests like these are also endangered by war and direct “ecocide” – whether in Ukraine, Lebanon, Gaza, or elsewhere. Here’s a summary:
From ecocide to resource-stripping: War’s collateral damage on the planet [The New Humanitarian]
(The only good news, and some to tend to – there’s possible hope for wildlife in the Kakhovka reservoir, Ukraine, plus scientists are making plans for a managed comeback for the forests there.)
As for Peru, you can visit the official site:
This editorial comes from literally just yesterday and describes the critical juncture we’re at for the entire region, coming from the founder of Better Worlds:
Amazon Basin at the Brink: A Climate Tipping Point in Sight [Better Worlds]
We need ways of telling the story of ecology, and images alone aren’t enough. The sonic work done by artists like Izabela is essential. LOM has been an extraordinary champion of field recording as an art from, from the microphones – called “instruments” – by creator Jonáš Gruska, to releases, workshops, and discourse. If the times seem dark, maybe it’s a sign it’s the time for all of us to listen more.